FOR DUNEDIN ART GALLERY

Evening Star, Issue 23421, 11 November 1939, Page 10

FOR DUNEDIN ART GALLERY

£1,260 SPENT IN NEW PICTURES THREE PURCHASES FROM CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION [Special to thb ‘ Stab.’] WELLINGTON, November 11. Three outstanding works in the Centennial exhibition of national art at the National Art Gallery bore the red sale tabs when the public had its first view following the official opening by the Governor-General yesterday. The Dunedin Art Gallery representatives had shown alertness in getting the first pick, for these tickets represented sales to that gallery. One is entitled 1 Horses and Elder Bloom,’ by A. J. Mannings, R.A., and Royal Water Colour Society, a really superb study in oil of two horses in a setting where elder trees bloonr. Both trees and horses are attractive features of the picture, which is an excellent example of the English artist, who has won the plaudits not only of the public but of the profession. The catalogue price of this work is £525. A second purchase for Dunedin at the same price is an oil painting, ‘ The Fellside,’ by Sir Arnesby Brown, R.A., one of his typically charming landscapes. The soft, blue-toned distances have a foreground in which the artist’s handling of colour will make, it a popular gallery attraction. Dunedin’s third purchase, likely to arouse much discussion because it is certainly not of the, pretty-pretty type so popular in Christmas Annuals, is another oil entitled ‘ The Chess Problem,’ by Margaret Fisher-Prout, of the New English Art Club and Royal Water Colour Society. Two men are playing chess among the trees. There is an abundance of bright colour, daubed on heavily, but all blending perfectly when viewed from the correct point. One predicts some argument over this distinctive acquisition, the conflicting views being based on differing tastes. The catalogue price is £2lO.